Am a teacher with a hearing impared child in my claSS?

Question

I do teach kids in math (mainly grade 1's & grade 5's)

We have jsut started a new term & a new year. THis year in the new grade 5 class that i have I do have one boy who is hearing impaired. He does lip read but looses interest quite quick. I have to generelly go at a slower place because of him. His hearing aid is coming this week.

I have explained to everyone in the class that he is hearing impaired & they all understand & all have accepted it & him as an individual.

How do I go about with him in my class?? He sits infront & talk sometimes mainly to him so he does not get lost. I am really confused as to what to do with him & how to do it

Answer 1

I am an itinerant teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing. First, I'd like to say, please do NOT follow any of the suggestions in the first post. Making the student feel bad is not going to help his situation.
Every hearing loss is different, and each child with a hearing loss needs different things. If he's had a hearing loss his entire life and he's only now getting hearing aids in 5th grade, he might be behind in many things. Here are some general educational problems for hearing impaired children:

word order mistakes
subject/verb agreement
leaving off tense and plural markers in speech and in writing
leaving out articles and prepositions in speech and in writing
reading and oral comprehension
understanding or forming wh questions
understanding figurative language, idioms, words with multiple meanings, and sarcasm
pragmatic skills

This child may have none of these problems, he may have all of them. Please be aware that there are many language areas that hearing impaired children may be lacking.

Here are some general strategies to help him in the classroom:

Make sure you always face him in order for him to do as much lipreading as possible. Make sure you do not stand in front of a light source, such as a bright light or window, while you are talking. This hinders lipreading.

Repeat student answers as much as possible. Chances are, he's not hearing much of what his classmates are saying.

Do not turn out the lights when watching videos or using the overhead, or turn out half the lights, so he can still lipread you.

Give as many visuals as possible. When learning new vocabulary, write it on the board, especially if the word is multisyllabic.

Make sure he knows you are about to transition to another topic (we're going to do math now...ok, let's switch to math...etc)

Rephrase things for him as much as possible. If he still doesn't understand, try to write it down.

Make sure you use a normal rate of speech, and don't overenunciate! This makes it very hard to lipread.

Minimize classroom noise by making sure he is not sitting near the door or HVAC system. If you can, don't use fans while you are lecturing. Close the door during classtime to reduce outside noise. If you use manipulatives, try to put a piece of cloth on the desks or something to help mask the noise. All the schools I work in put tennis balls on the chairs and desks in the classroom with no carpet.

As the second post said, this child should have an IEP. If he doesn't, then he needs one. The school should also purchase an FM system to be used at school, in conjunction with his hearing aids. A teacher of the deaf/hard of hearing should also consult with the school and the child study team in order to help implement these measures.

If you would like more information, please feel free to email me I'd be more than happy to help you!

PLEASE NOTE: Deaf and hard of hearing is NOT the same thing. If the student is not deaf (meaning his hearing loss is severe enough to be called medically deaf) or Deaf (meaning he's involved in the Deaf community, using sign and usually NOT wearing any assistive listening devices), especially if he does not use sign language to communicate, getting a sign language interpretor will do nothing. There IS such thing as a person having some hearing loss, but not total hearing loss, therefore the term: hard of hearing

Answer 2

For the last 16 years ( June 1991 - present ), I've been teaching Hearing Impaired students ( Grade 1 - College ) here in the Cebu City, Philippines and i also have the same experience with that question. What I did was, the good thing for me is that I already knew Sign Language because I was exposed to the group who are Americans in which my sign Language is ASL. The first ting that i did was I really acted through my gestures, postures, facial expressions and many more. In order for him to understand. I never used SL but just an act of what we call VGC ( Visual Gestural Communication ). since that time that Deaf Boys and Girls really stick on me. Wherever i go they really go with most of the time.

Answer 3

I'd suggest that you leave things as they are if he's due to get a hearing aid--that may solve the problem. His lack of interest may stem from not getting the input the rest of the class are getting.

If the problem continues, here's a couple of suggestions:
1) come up with some group projects--ones that require every member of the group participate.. You could give them an incentiveby excusing the best group from a homework assignment one evening--or any of a variety of other incentives. Being part of a group--and responsible for his part--may rev him up.
2) Challenge him--point out to him that if he doesn't dohis work, he will make all hearing-impaired people look bad (which, as you no doubt know, is a sad but true reality).
3) Find out his interests--then come up with a math-related project that taps into those interests. This can be very effective. I know--my math teacher in 6th grade had the same problem with me--found out I was interested in space travel--and came up with soe extra credit projcects that gotme interested because they were about space travel. and it worked like a charm!

Good luck! :)

Answer 4

i can tell you EXACTLY what to do cause my hearing is impaired, im in 7th grade.
you need to teach the class a little slower than usually and help him on the side while teaching class or when done teaching class. when you talk to him one on one make sure you talk loudly and clearly so he can under stand. and at a pace where he can read your lips. When he get his hearing aids make sure the other students under stand how to interact with him, and ask so many questions. Thats why I had stop wearing my hearing aid.

Answer 5

Good, you got the other students to accept him!
You have some good advice from both the D/HH people and the itinerant teacher of the deaf. I would reiterate "visual" information. You need to go to the library and get kids picturebooks for the subjects you teach because they have more pictures. The internet also is a great source. Most of our teachers have projectors which hook up to the internet sites which are designed for teachers. Ask you tech. or librarian to show you how. I teach k-8 Deaf and hard of hearing (Oral and ASL)in an H.I. resource room, I use highlighters to highlight key words, vocabulary words. I cut up old textbooks from the discard closet and make posters which I hang around the room. The other kids will benefit. Say we are beginning a unit on the Constitution. We got old National Geographics and cut out pictures. They used markers to add in details to represent the concepts of each amendment. They worked in groups and some of the pictures were really creative. Each group had to explain the amendment. We hung them around the room. For 5th grade math I use fraction manipulatives- colored shapes and design pizza with 1/4 mushroom, 1/4 sausage etc.
Just keep thinking: how can I show this idea in sequential steps? How can I SHOW the steps in pictures or drawings? Allow for repetition, post rules for grammar, math etc on charts. Use the charts to remind him what topci you are on.
Don't you have a district teacher to consult with who serves the Hearing Impaired? Do you have a speech and language pathologist to offer ideas? Is there a school with H.I. in the neighborhood you could go and take a professional day and get ideas?
All of us are required to write out the objectives of each lesson on sentence strips (with magnets on the back) and refer to them
as we teach. That way they know what to expect. See that he has a note taker someone in the class who can take notes and have the office make copies for him. It is impossible to take notes and hear the lesson. Eyes get tired looking both at the speaker and up and down. Get to know his parents. Call them talk to them, they know what he needs too! Ask them what worked.
If he doesn't have an IEP, he needs one ASAP. You need some support too and don't feel bad asking for it!! Your admin. should be providing it for you.. if not..ask us here on Yahoo! Good Luck!

Answer 6

Do you have a para-educator or Sped teacher support...? I work as a Sped para-educator...and have assisted (inclusion) a hearing impaired student in her English class. Yes, it can be a struggle to keep the momentum for the other students in class...as the hearing impaired student seemingly loses interest. I bet after (he) gets his hearing aid, he would attend at a quicker pace.

May I offer these suggestions...? Make sure when giving directions for class assignment (lecture or modeling) face the hearing impaired student so they can lip read. Also, have another student assigned to peer-partner with the student to keep them on track. For example: Take notes; if reading, point to text they need to follow; modify assignment if necessary. If the student is lagging too far behind, contact your Principal and/or Sped teacher on staff (may have to ask for help at the district level). These young people need exposure to classroom procedure as well as inclusion or mainstreaming.

Just to let you know, the student I assisted continued to fall behind and the English teacher wasn't willing to adjust her teaching approach to accommodate the student. So, now she is coming to the resource room to get one-on-one support. Best to you...and thank you for being a teacher...! ciao, CAKES

Answer 7

hello

I can help you here. you just have to make sure he understand whats going on in the classroom

you could do from there as being teacher

1) do group project that will get him involed with and have interest

2) you could assigned him fun project or fun homework and help him to understand what you are talking about.

3) deaf can be very smart, we are not stupid. we also can tell whats going on

4) hearing aids only will help him about 3/4 of time because hearings also have negative. hard for them to indefendty the sounds

5) get interpreter

6) look at his IEP and see what the classroom accomatations for him

i can keep lists of you can do and help him learn

and can u do me a favor, "hearing impaired" isnt good way to name us. to us its as an insults. just use DEAF :) thanks!

need more help you can send me a instant message, coolgirlsoccer2003

Answer 8

I hate to be mean, but based on the standard of your writing I cannot imagine he will be learning much in your class.

I would focus more on learning to write, and less on this hearing impaired child. For the sake of their education I sincerely hope English is not your first language.

Answer 9

This child should be in the special education program and have an IEP plan that you must follow.
Since you are asking these questions, he doesn't have this (doesn't surprise me)
If child DOES have IEP plan, there should be accomodations and modifications on it that you must follow to help him.
If child is not in special education and does not have IEP plan, tell his parents that in order for the school to LEGALLY help him, they need to request the special education department to do an evaluation on him to see if he can qualify for special education.
The parents might not want him in special ed, but if he's not, he will not have legal rights and protections, and the school will not be legally required to help him at all.

Answer 10

An interpeter for the deaf . I am an interpeter and sign language is the best bet. have the state or school district get you someone who can interpet so your class doesn't slow down and he can keep up.